I'm coming back to the Phila area for a wedding this weekend, but staying at my parents' place in Wind Gap. Looking for someplace between there and Pottsville to ride on Saturday. Looking for long, technical trails. My hubby is in the Army, which moved us to Ohio for the time being and we miss the rocks! Per our 100miler training plan, we're supposed to do 3.5 hours Saturday, so I'm looking for something that will keep our attention. We were thinking Jim Thorpe, but now it lookslike everything there is wrecked. Anyone know if Bear Creek is open yet? What about Blue Marsh? I think that might be relatively smooth and boring. Anyone ride trexler?
The place is littered with old coal roads, not to say it's legal or what your looking for. As far as an epic designed mt bike trail system Roaring Creek, or Rattling Creek would be two, but not really close. Rattling Creek would be your defined Epic.
Walking Purchase Park (AKA Salisbury) in Bethlehem is a good option. If you hit all the loops it probably comes to about 13-14 miles of trail. Nice rocky sections and some faster bits mixed in as well. Bear Creek is nice, but a pretty short loop all told.
Oh and JT is still quite Viable, American Standard is in Excellent shape and if you do the Complete Standard, (Both Sides of the Road) it's 25+ miles depending on options.
Also the Mary D/Locust Lake Area is Brutal....but not mapped at all, and well, that would be tough with out proper directions and or a guide.
Delano is another epic area, again not mapped, and without a guide.....yeah it'll be a long day and you can get lost easy.
But Rattling Creek is mapped....follow that link, and it's pretty boney, (Rocky)
This Map might be better for ya. Download the new MTB Project app, search for Rattling Creek, its in there you can Download the route and use it to Navigate on your phone....yes the app is free ;p
One of my favorite ways to ride Rattling Creek is from the parking lot above Lykens, then...
- rugged trail CCW
- doc smith
- fawn kill
- shale run
- left onto grimm's, and up the hill to
- luke's (doubletrack)
- rim (doubletrack)
- wolf pond up
- left onto matter, out to hang glider launch for a break with a view
- rock's ridge (sometimes up, down, and back up, I really like rocks' ridge)
- right onto doubletrack, down to left onto matter's singletrack
- hairpin right onto preserve line, only so far as doubletrack, then hard left
- right onto shreffler's trail
- right onto dry run
- left onto rattling creek, across and up to lykens rd
- left onto road
- right onto hop back
- back to lot
Addendum: You may want to send a PM to CoalCrackerClassic and see if he's in town over the weekend, he could show you some good riding trails out of Bungalow Park in Tamaqua, and the surrounding area. You could go and explore the trails by yourself in Tamaqua but you'd get a much better ride with a guide.
thank you so much for all the guidance guys! JT is much more in our path of travel, so we'll be hitting that up. We'll probably go around 10 or 11AM if anyone is around and wants to ride. We're Upper-mid pack Cat 2 riders (xc), probably won't stop too much or for more than 1-2 min at a time. That being said, the Mohican 100 is only a week away and we're supposed to be riding at 65-75%, so who knows what our pace will really be.
Looking for an Epic & Technical trail system to ride near Pottsville/Windgap/et
Best bet for American standard/deer path is Sunday. It is still turkey hunting season all day until June, except Sundays, and both of those trails are in state game lands which are closed to bikes during major hunting seasons. Trust me, I have personally been thrown out of there on Saturdays during spring turkey season. There are other JT areas to ride. PM me and I'll help you out.
^^This x 100. Most of the trails on Broad Mountain in Jim Thorpe are of highly questionable legality already. The absolute worst thing you can do for the entire mountain biking community is ride them during open hunting season.
JT is OK, but Rattling Creek is the ticket, IMO. 100% legal, and fantastic trails. Probably around 25 miles if you ride it all, and plenty of technical sections mixed between fast and flowy. Its worth the hour or so out of your way to get there.
Like I said in my first post Rattling Creek is your epic...
...and parking at JT might get you a hefty fine, if you come back to your car and see the Game Warden sitting in his truck just waiting to write it!
Come check out Mt Penn/Antietam Lake trail system in Reading Pa,have a great mix of everything but mostly leans to the technical.please contact me here if you ever want a tour.also check out our newly formed IMBA chapter BAMBA on Facebook or at berksmountainbiking.org
If you ride RC, you plan your routes properly, you can get a 50 mile ride in, and use each trail once except Doc's twice(once each direction), and the upper half of Rattling twice(climb, then decend). this is the route they use for the 50 mile race, but start in town and finish near town at the Glen Park. They did build a new trail near Rock's Ridge, but due to not getting proper permission, the county is going to shut it down. I believe it's finished, but was never on it.
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